Obama arrives to deliver a speech on health care to the American Medical Association in Chicago, Illinois

Barack Obama has long emphasized the importance of reforming American medical care, both as a candidate in the 2008 election and as president. During the month of June, however, he dramatically increased his efforts to secure major reform legislation by the end of the year.

The President is using his oratorical skills to rally support for reform. In a series of speeches and town hall meetings, Obama made his case for expanding insurance coverage and controlling medical spending. Speaking before the annual meeting of the American Medical Association in Chicago on June 15, for example, he painted a familiar, distressing portrait of a health care system that costs too much, leaves too many Americans without adequate insurance, and too often provides substandard care. The President warned of the dire consequences if these problems were not promptly addressed:

Make no mistake: the cost of our health care is a threat to our economy. It’s an escalating burden on our families and businesses. It’s a ticking time-bomb for the federal budget. And it is unsustainable for the United States of America.

Yet as the President expands his involvement in the health care debate, health reformers have concluded that time is not on their side. Delay and the President’s popularity might well ebb. Congress could become more cautious as the 2010 elections approach. The longer the health care debate drags on, the more time opponents have to mobilize against and foster public anxiety about reform. And with federal budget deficits soaring, the political opportunities to finance expanded health insurance coverage may fade.

Democrats have consequently sped up congressional debate on how to change health care. By July, committees in both the House of Representatives and Senate were writing and amending ambitious legislation. The goal was to pass bills in both the House and Senate by the August recess. A conference committee will then have to reconcile the differing bills, though President Obama has said that he wants Congress to have legislation ready for him to sign by October 15.

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The fear that a promising start to reform could unravel arises from past experience. That, after all, is precisely what happened to the Clinton administration. In 1993, as in 2009, the US appeared to be on the verge of enacting comprehensive health reform. Then, as now, a Democratic president came to the White House with sizable Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. With increasing costs and growing numbers of uninsured, the administration believed it had a public mandate for reform. There was consensus on the need for change from a variety of interest groups, including businesses threatened by rising health insurance bills. Clinton’s plan proposed both to achieve universal coverage and to control costs by requiring employers to pay for their…

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